Heat, Human Rights, and the Urgency of Inclusive Early Warnings: A Call to Action for Older Adults and People with Disabilities

Title: Heat, Human Rights, and the Urgency of Inclusive Early Warnings: A Call to Action for Older Adults and People with Disabilities

By Ambassador Luis Gallegos and Marcie Roth

As temperatures rise across the globe, so do the threats to the lives and well-being of people who are aging and those of us with disabilities. From Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, from Asia to North America, climate-driven heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more deadly. These extreme events are no longer anomalies; they are the new normal. And while heat affects everyone, it does not do so equally.

Older adults and people with disabilities are among the most disproportionately impacted by extreme heat—but far too often, we remain the most overlooked in planning, response, and recovery. This neglect is not just a failure of preparedness; it is a failure to uphold our fundamental human rights.

The Human Rights Imperative

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other international human rights instruments recognize the equal right of all people to life, safety, access to information, and participation in decisions that affect us. The same must apply to the design and deployment of climate resilience strategies—including early warning systems and emergency response efforts that center equity and accessibility.

We must reject the outdated and harmful framing of older adults and people with disabilities as "vulnerable populations." We are not passive victims of climate change. We are rights-holders, leaders, innovators, and essential voices in the fight for a just and sustainable future.

Heat Is a Slow-Moving Disaster—And a Preventable One

Unlike earthquakes or tsunamis, extreme heat does not strike without warning. Heat waves are often forecasted days in advance. And yet, time and again, we fail to take effective action—particularly for the people whose lives are most at risk. Heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in many parts of the world. It exacerbates chronic health conditions, undermines independence, and leads to cascading system failures in healthcare, transportation, and energy.
Inaccessible or non-existent early warnings, combined with inadequate infrastructure, poverty, and social isolation, create deadly outcomes. We know this. And we know how to prevent it.

The Role of Inclusive Early Warning Systems

The UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All (EW4All) Initiative offers a critical opportunity to bridge the gap between technology, policy, and lived experience. But to fulfill its potential, early warning systems must be more than digital alerts. They must be accessible, actionable, and redundant. This means:

• Multilingual, multi-sensory alerts (including visual, auditory, tactile, and easy-to-understand formats);
• Low-tech/no-tech options for people without phones, internet access, or electricity;
• Community-based outreach that prioritizes trusted messengers and peer-to-peer support; and
• Built-in feedback mechanisms that allow aging and disabled people to shape the tools designed to keep us safe.

Solutions like Infinite Access are helping to reimagine what equitable early warning communication can look like. But innovation must be paired with investment, implementation, and accountability.

Aging and Disability Justice in a Climate Emergency

The intersection of aging, disability, and climate change is not a niche issue—it is a central concern for the global community. By 2050, over 2 billion people will be over the age of 60. One in six people worldwide already has a disability and this number will continue to climb. Many of us live at the intersection of both. Our experiences are not peripheral—they are prophetic.
We are the canaries in the coal mine. If early warnings and emergency systems do not work for us, they do not work at all. But if we are centered in the design and delivery of climate solutions, everyone benefits.

A Call to Action

To governments, humanitarian actors, civil society, and the private sector:
It is time to move from rhetoric to results. Climate justice is disability justice. Aging with dignity in a warming world requires policy change, inclusive innovation, and the leadership of those most affected.
To our fellow advocates, across generations and regions:
We must continue to stand together and demand that every country invest in accessible early warning systems and accessible temperature solutions as a matter of human rights, public safety, and global solidarity.

Let us honor the lives lost in the heat by ensuring that no one is left behind in the climate driven extreme weather to come.